Justin Bailey is a term used both to refer to a famous password in Metroid, and the pink leotard that it causes Samus Aran to wear upon using it. It may have first been referenced in Nintendo Power.

In this appearance, Samus has long hair, a sleeved pink leotard, boots with lining of the same color as her hair, and the Arm Cannon. There is also a two-piece bikini that Samus wears in the best ending, though it is not playable. Her hair color changes according to which suit she possesses, and whether she is using missiles. When the Justin Bailey password is used, she begins with the Varia suit, making her hair green.

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"What's the matter? All I said was that Komaytos look like little Metr—" Non-canon warning: This article or section contains information that may not be considered an official part of the Metroid series in the overall storyline by Nintendo.

The name "Justin Bailey" came from a famous password (JUSTIN BAILEY ------ ------) that, when used, would give the player nearly all the power-ups in the game (minus the Ice Beam and one Energy Tank) and allowed Samus to use them in only a pink one-piece swimsuit rather than her Power Suit. However, it is purely a cosmetic resprite as Samus has the same abilities and takes the same amount of damage from enemies that she would if she were wearing her suit.

There are many theories regarding the password. For example, Justin Bailey was originally thought to be one of the creators of the game, but no such name appears in the game credits. It was also often said that the Justin Bailey code was a reference to an English or Australian term for a bathing suit. Bathing suits were, according to this rumor, referred to as "bailies," so "Justin Bailey" would more accurately be rendered as "Just In (a) Bailey", which is what Samus appears to wear when the code is used. However, Samus' outfit with this code is a leotard, not a bathing suit, and "bailey" is not actually slang for "bathing suit" anywhere in the world.

It was also rumored that the password violated Metroid 's normal checksum verification, which would suggest that JUSTIN BAILEY was deliberately coded into the game. The Metroid Database has attempted to debunk this myth using password generators:

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...the JUSTIN BAILEY password is a total fluke. If you play around with Metroid's password system (something you can do with the Metroid Password Generator program, found in Fan Apps), you can come up with other names and words that work as passwords. The "Justin Bailey" code is one which was found early on and happened to work pretty well, so it became widely reported.

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Many players previously thought this code was the only way to play as an armorless Samus, but every password actually contains a flag indicating whether the player will be using armorless Samus or not. For example, the code "000000 000020 000000 000020" makes the player play as armorless Samus without having collected a single item and starting in Brinstar.

Due to the removal of passwords in later games, armorless Samus was no longer a bonus feature, though she did continue to appear armorless in the best endings of subsequent games, and in the Game Overs for most non-Prime Series games following Super Metroid in which her suit cracked and exploded, revealing Samus wearing a revealing outfit.

The Justin Bailey also appears in WarioWare: Twisted! and WarioWare: Touched!, in the respective microgames based on the original Metroid. On rare occasions, Samus will appear in her Justin Bailey suit.

The Metroid e-Manga depicts Samus in a light pink jumpsuit, as well as with a brown-like shade of blond hair. This could quite possibly be a reference to the bailey in Metroid.

In Metroid, the value in memory address 69B3 toggles the suit mode. A value of 1 makes Samus appear in bikini.[1]

In the independent video game parody film Press Start, when Sam (based on Samus) is captured, her spacesuit is removed by a henchman (played by director Ed Glaser) who is wearing a "Justin" nametag and addressed as "Mr. Bailey".

The multi-platform game Catherine features a man at the Stray Sheep bar named Justin Bailey.

Jody Summer's outfit in the F-Zero series resembles the original Justin Bailey suit.

A variant of the password: (JUSTIN BAILEY ------) starts the player in Kraid's Lair with 55 missiles, 4 out of 6 energy tanks, and all power ups (including the ice beam using the wave beam's particle, but not the wave pattern), and Ridley and Kraid have not been defeated.